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native sagacity and attachment to the Protestant faith. Under the direction of this estimable nobleman, Montrose was introduced to an accurate acquaintance with Latin and Greek, besides being instructed in those other branches of polite education which his station in society required and his means afforded. A temporary interruption to his studies was occasioned by his marriage, which seems to have taken place when he was little more than seventeen years of age, and which was consummated thus early by the advice of his friends, who, warned probably by the sudden demise of his father, were anxious to guard against the misfortune of his noble house being left without a lineal representative in case of the like happening to himself. The lady to whom he was united was Magdalene, a daughter of Lord Carnegy, of Kinnaird, afterwards first Earl of Southesk. The interruption caused by this event seems, however, to have been of brief continuance, for as very shortly after coming of age, Montrose entered upon active life, it could only have been by great assiduity and diligence during the years of his minority, that he acquired those literary attainments of which in after years he gave so many proofs.

Towards the commencement of 1633, when just entered on his twenty-first year, Montrose proceeded to the continent, where he remained for three years. During this period his time was occupied principally in improving himself by intercourse with French and Italian society, by the observation of men and manners in the countries through which he travelled, and by prosecuting such branches of intellectual and physical culture as yet remained to complete that course of education which, by the advice doubtless of his accomplished guardian and most tender 'father,' Lord Napier, he proposed to pass before entering upon the stormy scenes of active life. The statement which is frequently made as of unquestioned authority, that during this period he was for a season engaged in the service of the French king as a captain in the Scottish Guard, is shown by Mr. Napier to be a mistake, traceable, in all probability, to some confusion in the minds of those with whom it originated, between the early history of Montrose and that of his future opponent, and ultimately companion in arms, the Marquis of Huntly. The shortness of his residence in France, and the nature of the studies in which he was engaged whilst there, combined with the fact that during the whole of that period the captaincy of the Scottish Guard was held by Lord Gray, place it beyond a question, that no such situation was occupied by Montrose; though there can be little doubt that the scenes of warlike enterprise of which the continent was at that time the theatre, and in which the Scottish mercenaries took so prominent a part, tended in no small degree to foster the military spirit in his bosom, and give an impulse to

course with untarnished, though not untroubled lustre. On the service thus rendered to the memory of Montrose, however, and the clearing up of one or two obscure points in the history of the times in which he lived, the value of the work before us in a great measure terminates. We still hold our unfavourable opinion of Charles in spite of Mr. Napier's urgent pleading on his behalf, and are still disposed to do honour to the religious part of the Covenanters, notwithstanding his vehement abuse of the whole body. Bishop Burnet is not altogether ruined in our estimation as an historian, because Mr. N. has shown he could write an abject letter when placed in circumstances of peril, and was given occasionally to allow a little clerical spleen to influence his pen in delineating the characters of his contemporaries. Of Johnstone, Hamilton, and Argyle we think much as we did before, only that our unfavourable estimate of their character and conduct has been somewhat confirmed by the evidence Mr. Napier has adduced. And though he has raised Montrose, Napier, and their confederates prodigiously in our esteem, we have not been thereby brought one whit nearer Conservatism, nor rendered in the slightest degree more inclined to give up our attachment to those sound principles of constitutional government for which they at first contended, for the sake of adopting those of a more arbitrary and prescriptive character, to the defence of which the violence of the popular party seems at last to have driven them.

As the personal history of Montrose is the thread by which Mr. Napier has connected his materials in the volumes before us, we cannot do better, in attempting to give our readers a condensed view of their contents, than to follow as nearly as our different circumstances will allow, the course he has adopted. Our object in this survey of the history of Montrose, however, shall be not merely to do justice to the character of that individual, by setting before our readers the true facts of his life as detailed by Mr. Napier, but still more to present to them a correct, though necessarily brief and cursory sketch of the important, and in many respects unparalleled transactions of which Scotland was the theatre during the troubled reign of the first Charles.

MONTROSE was the only son of John, third Earl of that name, and, as appears from an incidental notice of his age furnished by his biographer Wishart, when recording certain events that occurred towards the close of his life, must have been born about the close of 1612, or the commencement of the following year. At the death of his father, which took place unexpectedly on the 24th of November, 1626, he was not more than fourteen years of age. During the remainder of his minority he enjoyed the advantage of being under the guardianship of Lord Napier, the son of the illustrious inventor of Logarithms, who, with a large share of his father's ability and learning, inherited all his

native sagacity and attachment to the Protestant faith. Under the direction of this estimable nobleman, Montrose was introduced to an accurate acquaintance with Latin and Greek, besides being instructed in those other branches of polite education which his station in society required and his means afforded. A temporary interruption to his studies was occasioned by his marriage, which seems to have taken place when he was little more than seventeen years of age, and which was consummated thus early by the advice of his friends, who, warned probably by the sudden demise of his father, were anxious to guard against the misfortune of his noble house being left without a lineal representative in case of the like happening to himself. The lady to whom he was united was Magdalene, a daughter of Lord Carnegy, of Kinnaird, afterwards first Earl of Southesk. The interruption caused by this event seems, however, to have been of brief continuance, for as very shortly after coming of age, Montrose entered upon active life, it could only have been by great assiduity and diligence during the years of his minority, that he acquired those literary attainments of which in after years he gave so many proofs.

Towards the commencement of 1633, when just entered on his twenty-first year, Montrose proceeded to the continent, where he remained for three years. During this period his time was occupied principally in improving himself by intercourse with French and Italian society, by the observation of men and manners in the countries through which he travelled, and by prosecuting such branches of intellectual and physical culture as yet remained to complete that course of education which, by the advice doubtless of his accomplished guardian and 'most tender 'father,' Lord Napier, he proposed to pass before entering upon the stormy scenes of active life. The statement which is frequently made as of unquestioned authority, that during this period he was for a season engaged in the service of the French king as a captain in the Scottish Guard, is shown by Mr. Napier to be a mistake, traceable, in all probability, to some confusion in the minds of those with whom it originated, between the early history of Montrose and that of his future opponent, and ultimately companion in arms, the Marquis of Huntly. The shortness of his residence in France, and the nature of the studies in which he was engaged whilst there, combined with the fact that during the whole of that period the captaincy of the Scottish Guard was held by Lord Gray, place it beyond a question, that no such situation was occupied by Montrose; though there can be little doubt that the scenes of warlike enterprise of which the continent was at that time the theatre, and in which the Scottish mercenaries took so prominent a part, tended in no small degree to foster the military spirit in his bosom, and give an impulse to

that love of bold and heroic adventure by which his subsequent career was so strikingly marked.

On his return to Britain, in the early part of 1636, he presented himself at the court of Charles, where his reception was very different from what his personal merits and the services of his family entitled him to expect. A frigid act of courtesy, insultingly performed, was the only welcome with which the selfish and haughty monarch received the youthful noble, who endowed with all the accomplishments of his age, was burning to lay the unqualified offer of his services at the feet of his hereditary sovereign. Mr. Napier, following Heylyn, endeavours to trace this injurious treatment to the crafty surmises of the Duke of Hamilton, at that time the King's bosom counsellor, in so far at least as Scotland was concerned, and from certain suspicions of his own seems inclined to hint, that nothing was wanting on the part of another Scotchman whom Charles had recently admitted into his councils, the young Lord of Lorn, afterwards Earl and Marquis of Argyle, to foster the prejudice thereby excited against one in whom both of these noblemen had reason to dread a formidable rival at court. The only objection to this theory is, that it has little beyond mere conjecture in its support, for it certainly serves to account for what otherwise must appear very extraordinary,the rejection by Charles of one whose illustrious descent, personal accomplishments, and hereditary principles seemed to point him out as a fit favorite for a prince to whom such qualifications were never indifferent; and there is nothing in the subsequent history of these noblemen in respect either of their public conduct, or of their behaviour towards Montrose, to cast any antecedent improbability on the supposition to which Mr. Napier resorts. this, however, as it may, the fact that Montrose was all but directly repulsed on the occasion of his first appearance at court, is unquestionable; and as little can it be doubted that, on his return to Scotland, which took place immediately after, he carried with him the rankling soreness which, in a mind like his, such unworthy treatment could not fail to produce.

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On his arrival at the capital of his native country, a state of things presented itself to his view but little calculated to allay the tumult of his feelings, or to lull him into forgetfulness of the insult he had received. The whole country was in a state of intense political and religious excitement. A long series of foolish, vexatious, and oppressive interferences on the part of the crown, with the religious habits and prejudices of the people, had at length formed among the latter a spirit of fierce and determined resistance, which was rapidly verging towards an appeal to arms. The nation had reached one of those awful crises when the that has been silently and imperceptibly gathering behind the bulwarks that seemed to repress and confine it, bursts suddenly

power

forth, and sweeps with resistless and appalling fury over every obstacle. Unusual and portentous murmurs had long given ominous warning of the coming storm; but in vain. A few cautious and careful observers had marked the gradual rising of the tide, but the warnings they uttered were treated with disdain by those to whom they were addressed, or were replied to only by fresh attempts to beat back within still narrower limits the advancing surge. The time had at length arrived when this course could no longer be pursued. The intimations of danger had become too palpable and alarming to be longer overlooked. Men of all parties felt that a mighty struggle was at hand, and were preparing themselves as their interests or their consciences dictated, to take a side in the conflict. All as yet was uncertainty and excitement. Nothing was organized; hardly any thing definitely proposed. The nation, however, was obviously separating into two great parties. On the one side stood those who inscribed Episcopacy,' on the other, those who inscribed Presbytery,' on their banners. But these were mere accidental distinctions; -announcing only the proximate, and not the fundamental cause of the dispute. It was in reality the old struggle between Prerogative and Liberty-between the assumptions of the few, and the rights of the many-that had been revived in Scotland, though under circumstances of a peculiar nature, and with an aspect modified by the religious feelings and mental character of the people. Though the COVENANT was the magnet by which the unsettled elements of society were either attracted or repelled, and thereby formed into two antagonist masses, it was the tremendous force of tyrannical oppression that had first destroyed their natural cohesion, and thereby given occasion to the new combination. Mr. Napier finds in this rallying point nothing but a pretext for faction and rebellion; but it requires, we think, only a very cursory acquaintance with the progress of feeling and opinion in Scotland, during the greater part of the preceding century, to enable us to perceive that some such outbreak of popular indignation was almost a necessary consequence of the policy which had been pursued towards the nation at large, by those in whose hands the government was placed.

The Reformation from Popery was effected in Scotland almost exclusively by the powerful influence which the preaching of Knox and his confederates communicated to the minds of those composing the middle and lower classes of society. From first to last it was a popular movement, the result of strong conviction and ardent zeal on the part of those whose minds had been first awakened to independency of thought and feeling, by the stern and vehement exhortations of the Calvinistic preachers. The effect of this upon the national mind was deep and lasting. Apart from the more direct consequences of the change that had taken

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